Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen.
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In the FAZ Lech Walesa jokes about barefooted Chinamen and we find out why Houellebecq's latest book is being advertised in Chiens 2000. Mario Vargas-Llosa confesses to Die Welt that he's still under the influence of Sartre. The NZZ turns its up nose at the literature engagee of a new breed of literary SPD supporters. And the taz reads an essay by philosopher Slavoj Zizek only to conclude that Gerhard Schröder is the new Darth Vader - well almost.
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Germany could be a three-time, not a free-time society, writes Matthias Greffrath in the Tagesspiegel. The FR celebrates chanson singer Camille's newest album and the SZ says Brazilian president "Lula" da Silva is on the right track. The NZZ looks back on "Tanz im August", and the taz on the Sarajevo Film Festival.
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out in the SZ against Dutch taboos surrounding Islam, the papers remember the founding of Poland's Solidarity movement 25 years ago, there's uproar at the Ruhrtriennale and Berliner Zeitung opinion editor Arno Widmann discusses miniskirts and "women of bulk".
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The NZZ reports on media woes in Tunis, and photograph Bernd Becher discusses the sacred buildings of Calvinism. Hassan Khader looks forward to the end of the siege mentality in Gaza, while the FAZ describes the charms of Anna Netrebko's voice. Asha Bhosle tells how she became the world's most listened-to singer and three events look at punks in East Germany.
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The SZ is obsessed with inner-German bickering and Swedish journalist Natalia Kazmiersak has some gossip from Peter Hoeg. The NZZ finds Iraq still waiting for some good post-Saddam cultural media and bemoans German pop music's childish lyrics. And Amos Oz on why Israel has reached its moment of truth.
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Gustav Seibt is uneasy at a meeting of SPD cultural celebs. George Tabori reminisces about meeting Thomas Mann in post-war California, while the SZ pooh poohs Michel Houellebecq's latest book. Andrea Breth explains how she likes a bit of God and Utopia in her theatre and critics praise and pan Wim Wenders' latest film.
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The FR takes a peek inside Berlin's new elite club "Goya", while Chancellor Schröder gets a revolver for his garden. The taz heads to Russia's city of sand and yurts, and Amos Oz compares Israel and Palestine to jailer and prisoner in the Gaza Strip.
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New York gets the better of Shanghai in today's NZZ. Peter Jan Marthe's new arrangement of Bruckner's third is praised in the SZ, while the FAZ reports on Nanni Morretti's planned Berlusconi film. In Saturday's feuilletons light is shed on the controversy around a proposed centre against expulsion in Berlin and Ralf Dahrendorf tells us what Germany is missing.
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Peter Fuchs says the mass spectacle at the Catholic World Youth Day in Cologne is worthy of Leni Riefenstahl, Daniel Barenboim rehearses Mahler for a concert in Ramallah, the FAZ tells the chilling story of star painter Gerhard Richter's aunt Marianne, the taz reports on an Internet-only film series and the NZZ on the history of the newspaper.
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Philip Roth is annoyed at the critics at the New York Times, Gerhard Richter is appalled by the prices paid for his paintings. Meanwhile the Catholic World Youth Day booms in Cologne, German architects design Chinese cities, and German cultural lobbyists bemoan the impoverished state of the arts in what is arguably Europe's richest culture nation.
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"Ass faces" galore! Niklas Maak on a Jan van Eyck exhibition in Dresden, Wilhem Hennis on German President Hans Köhler's decision to allow federal elections in the fall and Oskar Lafontaine's inopportune comments on East German immigration in 1989. Plus Bernard Tavernier on his school pal Volker Schlöndorff, Franzobel on dried biscuits and wives and Philipp Ingold on the Russian brain drain.
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Conservative politician Kurt Biedenkopf says Germany's demographic problems go back a long way, and philosopher Birger Priddat says corruption is a sign of entrepreneurial verve. The Tagesspiegel calls for a German Ministry of Culture and the SZ explores Pope Benedict XVI's academic past in the heyday of 68. Susanne Wolff plays an out-of-body Penthesilea in Salzburg and the NZZ does not get to visit recluse Nobel poet Wislawa Szymborska.
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The taz sees cynicism and tragicomedy in this year's World Youth Day, Andrzej Stasiuk thinks John-Paul II should remain an illegal saint, and Christoph Schlingensief says no one wants to change the East German nappy. The FR is thrilled at Martin Kusej's staging of an unstageable play, and Wim Wenders philosophises on the blockbuster.
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Thomas Mann died 50 years ago today. The taz is sceptical of his new role as Germany's "national author", while the FAZ compares him to the USA. Irshad Manji uncovers the "secret abdomen" of Islam, Zhou Derong commends Google for only partly toeing the party line in China, and for Orhan Pamuk, Turkey belongs to a Europe with vision.
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Patti Smith loves the dead Bugs Bunny in Bayreuth, while Diedrich Diederichsen is disgusted by "Inside Deep Throat". Historian Gabriel Kolko sees nationalism behind the success of the Chinese Communist Party, Thomas Burkhalter is sceptical of Istanbul's World Music and Matthias Aumüller says some of Bakhtin's works could have been written by the Bakhtin Circle.
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Festivals: Susan Sarandon has a quick wit and a runny nose in Locarno and Joachim Kaiser finds positive words for "King Ottocar's Rise and Fall" in Salzburg. Rolf Schneider explains that East Germany was not a proletariat state, Alfred Grosser examines a common European scepticism of fat cats and Gerhard Stadelmaier looks forward to a left-leaning upcoming theatre season in Germany.
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For Najem Wali, the future of Iraq will be decided in Kirkuk. Wilhelm Genazino criticises Angela Merkel's voice, while critics praise Anna Netrebko for hers. The Swiss are up in arms over a foetus-seagull sculpture and Oliver Tepel sees too much marketing and not enough art in Alexander McQueen's catwalk videos.
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Reflections on Thomas Mann's prescience, President Truman's racism and architecht Rob Krier's postmodern brilliance. Mario Vargas-Llosa celebrates Paris' last real Boheme and Gretchen Dutschke defends her husband's brief flirt with violence. Joachim Güntner weighs up the German Left and Martin Kusej defends the "barbarianism" of the Salzburg Festival.
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Today's picks include a look at the misguided rhetoric surrounding the Brandenburg baby murders, a poke at Berlin's museums which are hostage to collectors, and a wake up call to the dream states of Germany and France. There are two views on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and some excitement at the mountain growing inside Berlin's Palast der Republik.
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Jonathan Franzen tells how his time in Germany taught him to appreciate the New World, historian Heinrich August Winkler explains why the postwar democratisation of Germany cannot be applied to Iraq. Navid Kermani gets furious at the Israelis and Christoph Schlingensief has nothing good to say about Gerhard Schröder. And David Chipperfield defends his plans for Berlin's magnificent Museum Island.
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Diedrich Diederichsen discovers Tourette's syndrome in "L.A. Crash" and Daniel Binswanger finds relatively little in Giorgio Agamben's radical critque of the democratic state. Ernst-Wilhlem Händler excuses Daimler boss Jürgen Schrempp for frittering away 50 billion euros and Sonja Margolina reports that from now on, to be a Russian hero, you have to be more than just a pal of Putin's.
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Jens Bisky doesn't see solutions to the East/West divide in any of the German election party manifestos, and Andreas Platthaus concocts some cocktails for the good-times Green bar. Zafer Senocak bemoans a new rift in German-Turkish relations. Andreas Breitenstein sees the beginnings of a new era in Bohemia. Daniel Kothenschulte takes up the conspiracy linking terror with the neo-Cons and Mozart's "Mitridate" goes down a treat in Salzburg.
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SPD politician Egon Bahr warns about the possibility of a Grand Coalition, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht wishes Germans would stop commemorating everything, and a group of German writers say NO to the latest spelling reform. Yuri Andrukhovych celebrates Horilka, the Ukranian vodka and Joachim Kaiser slams "The Magic Flute" in Salzburg.
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